This book was my first, but my 4th best. I mean, it's still tremendous, but the action isn't the best, but good enough. My favorite part is the part where Jack and Annie face a terrible time getting back to the tree house. Also, the funny part is at the time mentioned above, and at the beginning of the story. It's where Jack and Annie discover lions dislike giraffes. I get the reason, but it was still very funny. Also, I didn't know that giraffes could give a big kick like that. Well, I'm not going to spoil the book, so read it for yourself, and I guarantee you'll love it even though it may not be the best.

Lions at Lunchtime is a great book, written by Mary Pope Osborne. It is about Jack and Annie's adventures in Africa. The magic Tree House takes them to Africa to solve a riddle. Jack and Annie meet a lot of animals. They also meet a worrior. You will have to read the book to see if they meet any lions.
If you like animals, you will like reading Lions at Lunchtime. It was an exciting book. I really like the part when Jack and Annie walk under a giraffe. You will have to read the book to find out why they walk under the giraffe.

Annie and Jack are getting out of bed. They started to sneak outside. They walked to the tree house and climbed up and looked at the Africa book with giraffes on one side and zebras on the other. It took me two weeks to read this book. I can't tell you any more, but I think it's a good book for 2-4 grades. The book is adventurous to me, and I think it's a great book.

This book was amazing. Maggie Osborne definitely has a way with words. She takes two rather unlikeable characters at the beginning and makes you love them at the end. There were several places in this book that made me cry and just as many that had me laughing out loud. Rosie was an incredible herione and her turn around was truly believable. Highly recommended!

I could have kept reading this story for another 500 pages it was so wonderfully written. I have so much admiration for Ms. Osborne, she has such a colorful writing style, I was living right on the ranch with the characters, I loved the hedgehog and poking. This is a totally great story and I wish I were just starting so I could experience it for the first time all over again.

Virtually every romance novel involves the couple overcoming one or two obstacles in the path to love and happiness. Many authors can't even overcome those obstacles in a way that flows. The obstacles in this book are numerous. Rosie is a victim of years of sexual abuse at the hands of her dead step-father and has responded by becoming an active alcoholic who dresses like a man and won't look in mirror. She needs hand to reach her goal of making her farm pay (revenge on the step-father). Her county has a law that a man can be saved from the gallows if he marries a woman from the county. Enter Bowie - dishonorably discharged Army captain and convicted murderer. He chooses marriage over death -- conveniently forgetting his wife in name only, Susan.

2/3's of the book is the story of Rosie and Bowie as he clears his name and guides Rosie out of her nightmare. He's helps by some great side characters. 1/3 of the book is the story of Susan. Bowie assumed she was safe in Washington DC. It turns out that she's been disinherited and goes to Wyoming as a mail order bride only to be rejected because she has a son.

Many authors would have made a total wreck out of such a mass of complications. Osborne works her way through with skill and tenderness. It's not a perfect book. Bowie's a bit too good to be true. And it didn't move me to tears. Still, it's a much better than average read. And the critics agree with me. The book was chosen by Romantic Times as one of the 200 best books of the last two decades. Likewise, The Romance Reader's reader's poll chose it as one of the 100 best books in the history of romance novels.

The only thing this book is missing is a guide to the therapy you'll need when you fail to succeed. Many of the successes have turned to failure--you can succeed for a year or two, then you're out of businesses. These folks are charlatans of the worst kind. They encourage you to take great risks, come around to get your story, but are no where to be found when the governor or mayor or vice president leave office.

For most people government means bureaucracy. Not anymore. The Reinventor's Fieldbook lays out a new organization that will grab your imagination and focus it on performance. The book describes "how to" build a high performance government organization. It is filled with tools, stories, and references from all over the world. The hard research has been done for you.

Frankly I didn't think you could compile this much information and make it manageable. But the extraordinary research provided in the Reinventor's Fieldbook is presented in an easy to use format. Tools and methods are tied to issues of governing. The Reinventor's Fieldbook is one of a kind. It is the "how to" guide for delivering high performance government service.

Wow! I was pleasantly surprised to find that this collection of how-to's for reinvention is very accessible. Having worked with David Osborne I knew there was a ton of good information for this book, but I was concerned that it could be made useful. David and Pete have found a format that works.

I read Twister on Tuesday

I thought it was good
The history is two kids (Jack and Henna) going a school. In the school have four students the house is a twister class.
The tornado is going to the school so Jack and Henna run for they house.

I think kids of eleven years old like this book because it's nice.
I recommend this book because it's nice.

The Magic Tree House is a very imaginative series of books. Jack and Annie are seven and eight year olds who find a magical tree house in the forest. The tree house allows them to travel to travel to different places and time periods by reading book s found in the tree house. In this particular story #23, they travel to the prairies in the 1870's. They are on a quest that began in book #21 to find the third of four kinds of writing to help save Camelot. On the paries they, learn first hand, how wagon trains were used, how one room school houses were used, how grasshoppers cause problems on the praires and the most important lesson they learn in the story is how important storm cellars and dugouts were! This is a great book to read while learning about the 1870's, prairie lands and weather. The back of each book also includes facts about twisters, pioneer life on the prairie and poineer school books. The illustrations used in this book are essential for understanding vocabulary if you haven't discussed wagon trains, dugouts and one room schools with your class. This is a very infomative book and keeps 6- 9 year olds avidly reaading and listening.

This story was about a boy named Jack who is eight years old and his sister Annie who is seven years old. In the first book thay find a magic tree house in the woods. They find out that if they point to a book cover, that is where they will go. Mary Pope has written more books in this series. In Twister on Tuesday, Jack and Annie land in front of a schoolhouse and soon a giant twister appears. Read to find out what happens. My favorite part is when they ate frozen potatoes.

Conrad is a real star, I'm rather fond of him. Under Western Eyes is about living in a time of revolutionary urgency, individual fragility in a delicate system, and personal honor.

To summarize; Razumov, the 'Hero' is a university student in Russia post 1905 but pre 1917 who keeps to himself and has no real family and no close friends. A fellow student and a revolutionary, Victor Haldin, assasinates a local oppressive Tsarist autocrat. He then takes a chance and takes momentary asylum with Razumov, asking him to help him get out of the city. Razumov is an evolutionary progressive, not a revolutionary. Not willing to risk association with a radical like Haldin and destroy his entire life, Razumov turns him in to the police, and Haldin is subsequently hung.

The rest of the novel deals with Razumov's struggle with himself- he betrayed, and he has to live with a lie. Complicating things, he falls in love with Haldin's sister in exile. Raz can't bear it though, and eventually he does the right thing, but things get messy.

Thats the general plot, but the real meat of the novel is in the characters and the ideas underlying the conversations between them. The idea of how you justify revolution, the chaos of revolution vs the order of gradual reform, the unwillingness and helplessness of the individual caught in it all. And there's a continual theme of the diference between East and West.

Razumov reminds me a bit of Crime and Punishment's Raskolnikov- an isolated university student waxing the time away in a single apartment, brooding over Big Ideas and being slowly crushed by a powerful conscience. The stuff of modernity. Dostoyevsky was a little bit better, so thats why Under Western Eyes only gets 4 stars.

If you are familiar enough with Conrad's writing you will know he has a few favorite words - like "inscrutable" and "destiny". They reflect I believe Conrad's literary outlook. He likes to take characters, give them a haunted past with some shameful secret, emphasize a fatal weakness, introduce some culminating stimulae, and watch the tragic unfold. I think he could have written a brilliant biography of Richard Nixon. But to the point..."Under Western Eyes" is a quintessentially Conradian book. But unlike many of his other novels - Lord Jim, Nostromo, Victory - "Under Western Eyes" treats of period politics (namely the revolutionary movement on the rise in Europe) as he weaves his tale of betrayal and tragedy. There are no heroes in this book (save perhaps one) but only a motley collection of victims, fools, and eccentrics. There is not much action, despite its subject matter. I don't want to give away too much. The story unfolds in Moscow and Geneva, not around political machinations but around the tragedy of the central character, a young Russian thrown into the revolutionary movement entirely against his will. The saga of the young man's anger, self-loathing, and attempts to extricate himself from his "situation" form one salient plot of the novel. The ultimate solution to his unsought conundrum also serves to redeem him in his own eyes, if not those of others.

"Under Western Eyes" is also an attempt by Conrad to explore the peculiarities of the "Russian character". This is another line of development in the work. I put this in partentheses because such notions of racial character are naturally not so well received now as in Conrad's day. Whether you agree or not, Conrad (who himself was Polish) offers some interesting personal insights into the nature of the "inscrutable" Russian soul - its ability to persevere, its mysticism, its ultimate radicalism. Such issues were particular relevent to the time the book was written (1908), as Russia was then already breaking out in revolutionary violence. The story's narrator - a retired English bachelor - are the "Western eyes" under which Russia is regarded.

I might label "Under Western Eyes" a comic-tragedy, in that the primary factor behind the story's tragic chain of events is a misunderstanding. It is ultimately for the book's central character a journey of personal redemtion. Within the context of this, however, Conrad details some of his views on Russia, its people, and the nature of the revolutionary movement. I did not find it as engaging as some of Conrad's other works but anyone interested in the Russian revolutionary movement, or radical politics of the period in general, or with a bent for stories of betrayal, tragedy, and love should take a look.

"Perhaps life is just that," reflected Razumov, pacing to and fro under the trees of the little island, all alone with the bronze statue of Rousseau. "A dream and a fear." It is on this small space of remote land that young Razumov finds what we all seek after--a place for quiet contemplation (reminds me of Hemingway's "A Clean Well-Lighted Place"). And in this very thought-provoking Rousseau-inspired environment Razumov stumbles upon the thesis that all of life is but a dream--a dream full of constant fear. The taciturn, exiled, young Razumov reminds us of Joyce's Stephen Dedalus, and even more so Dostoevsky's Raskolnikov. Indeed, Conrad attempted to continue the legacy of the great Russian novelists, by forcing an eclectic grasp on some of Dostoevsky's themes (like the need for, and final apparent conclusion of, man's suffering) whilst straying away from other Dostoevskyian qualities. All in all, Under Western Eyes is about ideas--as Conrad repeatedly suggests-an ideal gripping psychological tale of a young intellectual's suffering for choosing the path of the czarist leaders. If Razumov, like Stephen Dedalus, was more skeptical, more prone to the need for exile (not the exile he indeed does embark on to Geneva via the Councilor's strategic plan) would he have ultimately had his eardrums smashed by a revolutionary brute? Certainly, Razumov must confess for his betrayal of Haldin; Razumov realizes the intelligence, love, and raison d' étre of Haldin altogether too late. Razumov, who knowingly understands that because of his actions Haldin lost his life, gives up his own body for lifelong suffering. And by doing so, Razumov seems to willingly accept his punishment, and further he lives no longer in fear. Upon completion of this wonderful novel, we can bask in the warm sunny glow of Conrad's wit that shines upon us--"Peter Ivanovitch (or any person who opposes despotic cruelty) is an inspired man." Joseph Conrad is an inspired man.

From the school that really started weight traininging in college football, Coach Arthur has done a great job of setting forward the principles that we should use in designing the programs that we use to build our athletes. You need this book.

This book is absolutely great if you are intersted in improving your all around ability in football. It lays out the foundation and goes with you step by step to get you where you need to be

This book outlines the strength program of one of the most poweful football programs in the Nation. This program is specifically designed to make you a better FOOTBALL PLAYER, not to make you a bodybuilder or any sort of other athlete. The methods and ideas that are outlined are for athletes trying to increace their core power.... not to train for a powerlifting compitition. If you buy the book expecting to learn how to be a well-conditioned, powerful football player.... you will be rewarded with a huge amount of viable knowlege!

It doesn`t matter if you have been collecting the Beatles for years or a novice just starting out,this book has something for everyone.Chock full of details like label variations and year of release.What better way to find the value of your record collection than by the experts, and Mr. Cox certainly is that.He has been writing the only official guide to the Beatles records for years.Now,this book is in a handy size so you can take it along to yard sales where you`ll know if you`ve found that treasure or not.For ebayers,this book is a money saver.No more,"I sold it too cheap cause I didn`t know the value" Highly recomended.

Perry Cox is the world renowned expert on Beatles records and other collectibles. The man simply has an encyclopedic knowledge of their recordings. This is the ultimate pricing and descriptive guide to their records, covering vinyl in all forms issued in the USA (which means it doesn't cover import versions) and CDs, with other collectibles touched on in its final pages. The emphasis here is clearly on Beatles LPs, EPs, 45s, and CDs, both group efforts, and solo releases. If you are a Beatles collector or want to start a collection, or learn how much your existing collection could be worth, this is the book you want and need. There is no other reference that can touch it. Some of the photographs are poor, but I'd chalk that up more to the printing process than anything. If you need to know EVERY variation of Sgt. Pepper's that Capitol/Apple ever released, or the nuances of the differences in all the pressings of any other Beatles LP, EP, 45, or CD that you can think of, this is your book. Perry's long essay on the "Butcher Cover" version of Yesterday and Today is, alone, worth the price of admission. With prices of Beatles collectibles still soaring, with vinyl getting more and more valuable as the years go by, you need to be armed out there in the marketplace, whether you are buying or selling. You can't do any better than to foray out there with this book in hand.

The DEFINITIVE Beatles price guide...Exhaustive info-fest on ALL U.S. Beatle and Beatle related stuff. Great info regarding counterfeit items and label variations. Although this wouldn't be considered a "coffee table" book, the pics are FINE and the eight page color section is a nice touch. Mindboggling in it's scope and obviously a labor of love, the Official Price Guide To The Beatles: Records and Memorabilia is a great read for ANY Beatles fan, and has probably sent many Beatles collectors back to the basement to re-evaluate their records...

Too sappy,predictable and unrealistic in places. In my opinion,the author, Maggie Osborne tries too hard in tying up all the loose ends. It's an insult to the reader to S-P-E-L-L every last detail out. Alex was the biggest disappointment!!! Totally made me sick how she was "hanging on to her dead husband" A husband she didn't even love! This is a perfect example how Osborne insults the reader! She spells it out-- over and over. Usually people who act the way Alex did -- don't know why they act that way. But Alex sure did, even told other people why she did what she did, and she STAYED in it until Freddy the saviour comes along. Same with Lester. Why couldn't Les figure out her own problems? But no -- along comes Freddy "the enlightened" to save the day. It's all kind of sick. And yet -- speaking of details -- A LACK OF -- I could not for the life of me figure out what time in history this book was in! The book says that it was soon after the Civil War but it sure didn't feel like it at all. Maggie Osborne does a really lousy job of taking you "back to the olden days." And giving you a flavor and feel for the time in history.

Good idea for a book though.

I liked this book, although it was a little slow starting out the gate. But I stuck with it and I'm glad I did. This was my second Ms. Osborne book and I wouldn't hesitate to buy anything else she puts out. If you haven't read Brides of Prairie Gold you're missing something special!

I love all of Maggie Osborne's work and this book is no exception. When three sisters learn they have to drive 2000 head of cattle from Texas to Kansas before they can get their inheritance, they thought it was impossible. In walks Dal Frisco. They thought they could get away with just riding along, but he made them learn how to bring in strays, cook for all the men, and learn how to shoot. They end up learning a lot about each other and themselves. Each has hardships they have to deal with and each find love in the process. They are all stronger women in the end, much like other books of Ms. Osborne. I loved this book and highly recommend it!!

The Enron collapse shows that, as long as we continue to enjoy the benefits of capitalism in the West, Trollope's most famous novel will continue to be timely. This has often been called Trollope's best novel: while it does not contain his best writing (which would be found in individual chapters of PHINEAS FINN and THE LAST CHRONICLER OF BARSET), nor is it his funniest (BARCHESTER TOWERS), it is his most consistently engaging in its details of a railway bubble in mid-Victorian London. The great financier at the center of it, Augustus Melmotte, rises from obscurity to be asked to host a dinner for the visiting emperor of China (which forms a splendid setpiece for the novel) on the eve of his financial ruin. The novel is very exciting and enjoyable, and shows Trollope straining the hardest to meet the standards set by his admitted hero, Thackeray; although this certainly doesn't meet the level of VANITY FAIR, it's still pretty good. There is a bit of a trouble that Trollope has too many subplots going and winds up spending hundreds of pages at the end (long after the work's main action is over) having to resolve them. One of the very best of these ongoing stories, the desperate attempts of the contemptibly snobbish (but still oddly sympathetic) Georgiana Longstaffe to find a husband, is as a result resolved much too suddenly and unsatisfactorily. I would still recommend THE WAY WE LIVE NOW as a fine read--and as a very splendid introduction to Trollope.

Picture a world in which a shadowy entreprenour rubs shoulders with the great and powerful, while hard-driving yuppies stop at nothing to be associated with his schemes. Sounds like Ron Reagan's "Morning in America," doesn't it? Except it is Victorian London. The entreprenour is Auguste Melmotte. The yuppies are the scions of great and small families hurling themselves at his daughter, his phantasmagorical railway (between Salt Lake City and Vera Cruz yet!) company, and the hem of his cloak. And the book is Anthony Trollope's THE WAY WE LIVE NOW.

Like all of Trollope's books, this one is as well crafted as any by Eliot or Thackeray; yet the theme and handling are strikingly modern. I came to this book by way of the Barsetshire novels with their depiction of rural clergy. I should have read THE WAY WE LIVE NOW first.

Especially worth noting are the surprisingly full characterizations of Marie Melmotte, daughter of the financier, who is courted by her emotional inferiors, and Roger Carbury, a rural landowner who holds aloof from the fray and helps several of the others pick up the pieces from their lives.

The only negative is the book's anti-semitism, though it makes several attempts to lift itself from this charge.

I consider it to be a tragedy that Anthony Trollope's works are largely forgotten and overlooked by the reading public. So many well-educated people have never even heard ot him, although his novels are some of the best representatives of what a good novel should be! His beautiful storytelling in "The Way We Live Now" is just another example of Trollope at his best. A master raconteur, his vivid descriptions and cutting satire make this work one of his most controversial (at least at the time) and indeed one of his most respected. Though his longest work, it certainly does not seem long because he keeps the reader on his toes, so much so, that he is dying to know what will happen next. The best thing about the book, in my opinion, is the fact that it is difficult to find a character whom you can like. Each one, and there are many, has one or more particular faults, and we, as the readers, quickly realize that no one is perfect. Even the sympathetic characters are prejudiced at times. This, I believe, is a marked contrast to Dickensian personnages who much of the time are almost too angelic or cruel to be believable. Trollope give us a lesson in true human nature, one that will be very hard for me to forget.

I want to start my review by saying, don't judge a book by its cover or its title for that matter. Although the Condor's Shadow
speaks very little about the Condor, it does symbolize the species of the United States that have disappeared or have become endagered. But to put it blunty, I was quite TICKED, because I was lead to believe that the book was about the Condor and his shadow! The book's overall entertainment level was low, but it was a real eye opener, no doubt. It explained the impact of humans on the environment and how fragile wildlife is to the world. All and all this book put fourth a whole lot of knowledge about the environment.

I read this book for my AP Environmental class in high school. I thought this was an easy book to read. It talks about the loss and recovery of wildlife in america. It is divided up into different sections for example the east, mid-west, west, and the coastal regions. Condor's shadow can easily be used in research projects and papers. In the back of the book is a handy notes, lit cited, and index sections making it easier for further research. The author does not seem to write with any bias and keeps his point of view until the end of the book. I would recomend this book for both nature lovers and students.

David Wilcove takes the reader on a tour of biodiversity loss and renewal throughout the United States. Each chapter focuses on a region, highlights the unique environmental problems of that region, and comprehensively addresses the extinction of vertebrates in that area. He also showcases those (sadly few) species that have flirted with extinction but which are now on the rebound. The book is both amazingly easy to read and thoroughly researched. Happily, the details of the research are tucked at the book of the book so they don't interrupt the flow of the tale, but are available for to the most exacting reader. Wilcove's passion as a birdwatcher shines through and his personality manifests itself on every page. I would recommend this book to anyone who is interested in the state of conservation in the US.